Rex Ryan made a blunt prediction for the 2022 Patriots
"Every factor in that organization is Bill Belichick's decision."
Tonight, the Connecticut Sun face the Las Vegas Aces in Game 2 of the WNBA Finals at 9 p.m. Las Vegas leads the series 1-0.
Also tonight, the Red Sox begin a two-game series against the Yankees at Fenway Park at 7:10 p.m., and the Revolution are in Houston to face the Dynamo at 8:30 p.m.
Rex Ryan on Bill Belichick: Following an uninspiring defeat against the Dolphins in Week 1, the Patriots have been on the receiving end of some early-season criticism.
Bill Belichick, in particular, has been the subject of blame for his personnel decisions.
And it was this specific line of criticism that was taken by ESPN analyst (and former head coach) Rex Ryan during a Monday “Get Up!” segment. Summarizing the problems facing the Patriots, Ryan placed the blame on Belichick.
“It’s his decision. Every factor in that organization is Bill Belichick’s decision,” said Ryan. “He earned that right, but — going back to last year — bringing in Nelson Agholor, how’s that working for you? Don’t complain about the weapons. You chose those weapons.”
Running down the list of Patriots wide receivers who the team has added in the draft and free agency over the last several years, Ryan concluded that it was a glaring failure of Belichick’s roster construction.
“Nobody can get open,” he concluded.
“All these moves that you made, you have no weapons, one of the reasons is because you can’t evaluate them,” Ryan continued. “You’ve done a poor job evaluating the weapons.”
Turning his attention to quarterback Mac Jones — a player he notably dismissed a year ago prior to Jones’s Pro Bowl rookie season — Ryan joked that the Patriots’ quarterback is smart enough to see through the team’s unorthodox offensive coaching setup.
“You’ve got your quarterback, you raved about him and all that,” Ryan said, referencing Belichick’s praise of Jones at the start of training camp. “I said he had a peashooter and thinks, what I mean is he doesn’t have a great ceiling. You have a very smart kid at quarterback, smart enough to know that Matt Patricia and Joe Judge probably [aren’t] that good a football coach for him, I mean offensive coaching-wise.”
Assessing how he thinks it will go for the Patriots this season, Ryan was direct.
“This is going to be a long-a** year.”
Trivia: Rex Ryan was the Ravens defensive coordinator during the team’s 2007 regular season matchup with then-undefeated Patriots. It was a dramatic game, with the Patriots only barely emerging with the win. Who was the Ravens’ head coach that day?
(Answer at the bottom).
Hint: He led the Ravens to a Super Bowl win in the 2000 season.
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Mac Jones’s Monday evening press conference:
On this day: In 1946, the Red Sox clinched the American League pennant with a 1-0 win over Cleveland. The game’s lone run came in the first inning on a Ted Williams inside-the-park home run (the only one of his Hall of Fame career).
Cleveland, whose player-manager Lou Boudreau utilized an early version of a defensive shift (named specifically for Williams, who had a natural tendency to pull the ball as a left-handed hitter), tried the trick against the Boston superstar in the first inning.
Williams, however, was capable at hitting the ball to the opposite field in order to upset a shift. He slapped a line drive into left field that “would have been a routine out against an orthodox defense for a left-handed batter,” wrote Boston Globe reporter Hy Hurwitz.
By the time the out-of-position Cleveland outfield recovered the ball, Williams was already rounding third base.
“I deliberately hit the ball into left field,” Williams told reporters afterward. “I’ve been planning for weeks to beat that crazy defense Cleveland used against me. When I stepped up in the batters circle waiting my turn to bat, I noticed Red Embree had a terrific breaking curve. I knew the best place for me to hit the ball would be in left field.”
Boston starter Tex Hughson pitched a complete game shutout, allowing just three hits and two walks.
Afterward, as the team (and city) celebrated the first Red Sox pennant in 28 years, Williams reportedly left early for a military hospital, where he visited with a wounded veteran.
Daily highlight: Geno Smith navigated his way through a collapsing pocket before finding Will Dissly for a wide open touchdown during the Seahawks’ Monday Night Football win over Russell Wilson and the Broncos.
Trivia answer: Brian Billick
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